Save Me From Myself
by Gretel-the-Dragon
Summary: The penguins gain a new ally after helping an emotional teen in her hour of need. Could she be the difference between life and death for the team?
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One**_

_**I started this on my fifteenth birthday—February 24th, 2011. I doubt anyone outside my family will ever see this, but if the time comes where someone does, I hope they like it, and can come to understand all that I'm going through right now.**_

_**I live with my mother, two younger half sisters, my step dad, and my eighteen-year-old, douche bag of a step-brother. My parents got divorced when I was 3. When I was four or five, my mom married Steve Contes—a divorced man with a son named Aaron. I kept my father's surname; Korema. I am the only one in my household that still carries that name, and I am my father's only child. He currently lives somewhere in Tennessee with his girlfriend, Autumn, and her kids. It's been about four years since I last spent any time with him. I miss him so much…**_

I put my diary away and took off my glasses to wipe a few tears from my face. It was true that I missed my dad. I was kind of mad that he wasn't around to help me get over all the pain Aaron caused me. He swore at me and my friends when he got angry. He yelled at our sisters for things they didn't have anything to do with. He was never fair and did unreasonable things, like make us clean when we were sick.

I had realized about a month before writing the diary entry above that my younger sisters and I had to stick together. We got along a lot better with each other than we did with Aaron. I had a feeling that they hated him as much as I did.

I picked my coat up, got out of bed, and left my room. I passed by my mom, who was sitting on the couch, without even a glance. I reached for the doorknob as I called, "I'm going to the park for a while. I'll be back before it gets dark." My mom said that she loved me, wished me a happy birthday, and I left.

I headed down the steps of our house and started walking. I lived pretty close to Central Park and loved just sitting under the trees, watching the squirrels bounce around looking for acorns. Sometimes I would bring them some walnuts. We had a tree in our yard, and it wasn't hard to grab a handful on my way. My dog loved to chase the squirrels, so I never brought her to the park… or anywhere, for that matter. My dog could not walk on a leash. She pulled on the leash so hard that she literally was able to drag us wherever she wanted to go. I guess that would be the wolf in her, trying to be the dominant member of the pack.

I entered the park and sighed. Central Park was one of the only places I felt truly happy. My house held too many memories of times when I was in emotional pain. I walked over to a tree and sunk to the ground. I pulled a small pad of blank paper and a pen out of the pocket on my black sweatshirt. I drew a chibi squirrel on the first page.

Just as I was finishing the tail, I noticed a brown squirrel sitting about five feet above my head on the tree. He was watching me draw. "Awww. Hey little guy." The squirrel chattered at me angrily. I realized that I was blocking access to a large hole in the tree with my head. I got up and moved away, letting the squirrel into his nest. I sat down under another tree with a good view of the hole and waited. The squirrel popped its head back out to look at me curiously. I could almost picture him asking, "You're still here?" I laughed quietly at the thought.

Opening my drawing pad to the next page, I drew a sparrow that was looking for worms in the grass next to the squirrel's tree. I looked around, didn't see anything that sparked my interest, and decided to pay the zoo a visit. I hadn't been to the zoo in a while. I only had to walk for about two minutes. I got stamped and excitedly went inside.

I had been to every exhibit in the zoo aside from the polar bears and the penguins. The polar bears I never went to see because at the other zoos I had seen, the polar bears just sat around on their ice flows. I had never seen the penguins because their exhibit was always too crowded. I liked to be almost alone when watching the animals. As you may have guessed, I was never much of a people person.

I decided to see how many people were packed in that day. To my surprise, there were only two people there. 'I guess not a lot of people like the cold.' I walked up to the edge of the habitat and peered in. "No wonder this place is so packed all the time," I thought aloud as I saw the four penguins for the first time. 'They're so cute!' I smiled as the smallest one swam closer to the fence. He had blue eyes that reminded me of my little sister, Katy's.

I sat down at a bench a couple yards away and watched them dive into the water. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn they waved at me. I sketched the four in my notepad a few times. When I looked up, the second shortest one was staring right at me. Even with the distance, I could tell that his eyes were a darker shade of blue; like my own.

I looked down at my papers, then back to the penguin. "You wanna see them, don't ya?" I swear, his eyes widened in shock, but I played it off as a trick of the light or something. I got back up and leaned on the fence, opening my notepad to the first sketch. The four actually gathered at the edge of their artificial ice flow to look.

I turned the pad to them. It was a sketch of the smallest one, from when he was swimming. The next sketch was of the one with the scar diving into the water. A third one followed: just the tallest one, standing, with a smile on its face. The last individual sketch was of the second shortest penguin. He was just standing still in the picture, staring straight out at the audience. That was the only one I added any color to: his eyes that reminded me of my own.

I had one more to show them, but before I could turn the page, a strong hand caught my arm and spun me around.

"Aaron!" My step brother was about six-foot-two, and pretty strong.

"What the hell are you doing here!" As he yelled, I could smell the reek of alcohol on his breath.

"You've been drinking," I hissed in disgust. He didn't get drunk often, but I knew the smell from being around some of the older kids at my school.

"So what? You need to come home." He tried to drag me along behind him, but I soon freed myself.

"Why?" I asked angrily. "It's not even getting dark yet. I told mom I would be home before dark." He glared at me. You know how I said Aaron didn't get drunk often? That's because most of the time my mom was there to stop him. She and I both knew how Aaron got when he was drunk.

The sound of the hit rang through the air. I fell on the cement, surprised he had actually slapped me. He may have been an ass, but he had never really hurt me that much. At least not physically…

I raised a hand to gingerly touch the reddening welt on my cheek. Aaron grabbed the hand and pulled me up. I was still stunned by what he had done, so I offered a lot less resistance. It wasn't just that I was stunned: I was a little afraid. The only times Aaron had ever hit me in the past were times when he thought I had really messed up.

I finally snapped out of my daze and started pulling against him again. But he had an inhuman grip on my wrist, and he didn't say a word. When we got back to the house and went inside, I was still struggling.

My mom and Steve were gone at work, but a few of my friends were gathered at our table. They yelled, "Surprise!" when we came in. The noise died down when everyone saw my situation. Aaron paid them no mind as he continues dragging me to my room. He threw me in and locked the door behind me. From behind my door, I could hear him telling all my friends to go home.

I felt my face burning with anger and shame. The anger was for him breaking up my birthday party and slapping me. The shame was there because before then, almost all of my friends had been convinced (by me) that it was nothing to really worry about. Now they knew about the things that went on in my house. They would probably try to comfort me the next day at school. I didn't want, or need, their pity.

I felt a coolness on my cheeks and found that I was crying. I rarely cried anymore, but at that moment I just let it go. I didn't care anymore. I lay down on my bed and cried for almost two hours. I slowly stopped caring about my life, my friends, and my family. By then it was dark in the house, and everyone was asleep. Aaron had unlocked my door about an hour before, so I was able to sneak out of my room. I grabbed a butcher knife out of the set on top of the fridge, then returned to my room.

'It would be so easy to just give up…' I pulled the knife across my left wrist quickly. Before I could repeat the action, something tackled me to the ground. The knife slipped from my hand and landed a few feet away. I threw my attacker off and scrambled for the knife to defend myself. I picked it up and turned around. There was no one there… until I looked down. 'Penguins?' Not just any penguins. I noticed the smallest one's eyes.

"You!" I hissed quietly. I really didn't feel that waking Aaron up right then would be good for my health. The second shortest one flew at me and knocked me onto my back. The knife somehow flew out of my hand again and got stuck in the wall. 'Damn it,' I mentally cursed. I was about to voice my opinion aloud when the tallest penguin walked over and put some headphones on me. I almost passed out when I heard the second shortest one speak.

"What the hell were you thinking, kid? Rico!" All I could do was stare as the second tallest one, apparently Rico, threw up a first aid kit. He handed it to the tallest one, to my left, who pulled out an ace bandage and pushed it in my face. I didn't move a muscle. The tallest penguin sighed. As he reached for my still bleeding wrist, my defensive instincts flew into action.

I grabbed his outstretched flipper with my right hand and threw him gently to the side, simultaneously sweeping the second shortest one off my stomach. In a flash I was up. I put my hands on my bed, cart-wheeled over, and turned around. Now my bed was between me and them. I pulled the weird head set off and asked, "What the hell is this?" I shook the headphones at them for effect.

Instead of an answer, the tallest one started squawking angrily at me. I put the headphones back on. "Be careful with those!" he yelled.

"Be quiet!" I hissed in reply. "My step brother is asleep, and will be majorly pissed if he gets woken up." The second shortest one looked at me accusingly.

"Oh, so now you care what happens?"

I looked guiltily at my wrist. It was dripping blood onto my—luckily—dark red carpet. I put a hand up and motioned for the tallest one to throw me the ace bandage. I caught the wrap, bandaged my wrist, and stared curiously at the four penguins in my room.

"I must be going crazy," I sighed wiping a hand slowly down my face. "I'm talking to a bunch of penguins." The apparent leader of the group hopped up onto my bed.

"If you tell anyone what happened here tonight, you'll end up regretting it," he threatened. Then the four hopped out my open window and disappeared into the night. I laughed.

"Yeah, right. Like I would ever tell anyone that, 'last night, some ninja penguins busted into my room and stopped me from trying to kill myself!' What a laugh!" I tried to brush some hair out of my face when I noticed, "Hey… They forgot the head set."

Now, I may not seem like a technological genius, but I could take apart a radio and hand you back a small robot in twenty-five minutes flat.

I opened up a metal panel on one side and took out the microchip. Then I got to work. By the time I was done, I had two small, neon green ear buds. When I put them in and looked in the mirror, I almost couldn't see them. I smiled and went to sleep, planning on a visit to the penguins the next day.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

When I woke up, the house was still dark. Maybe because it was three a.m.? I took a shower, got dressed, and had breakfast. For the rest of my free time, I finished up some homework I had due that day and watched a bit of TV. At six thirty-five I walked out the door to wait for my bus. It stopped outside my house five minutes later and let me on. I sat in an empty seat, hoping no one would come bother me about what happened the night before. Unfortunately, at the next stop my friend Amber sat with me.

"What happened to you last night?"

I looked out the window and muttered, "I don't want to talk about it. Just Aaron being an ass." I frowned and hid my bandaged hand from view. "It really is nothing to bother yourself with."

"I just… worry about you sometimes. You almost never smile anymore, and a lot of my other friends are scared of you because you glare at everyone." The bus soon stopped in front of our school.

"I'm fine," I reassured her as we got off. She looked doubtful, but hugged me and left for class. I made it through the day relatively unscathed. Only three other friends had been at the party, and I only got questioned by one of them. I was still relieved when the final bell rang to release us. I didn't talk to anyone in the halls or on the ride home. I just popped my head in the front door, said I was going to the zoo, set down my coat, and left.

I got to the zoo faster than usual that day and went straight to the penguin habitat. It was still relatively deserted, so I had no trouble seeing them. Making sure no one was within earshot, I hissed, "Hey!" The four turned to me in surprise.

"I… never got a chance to thank you for yesterday… I mean… your birthday isn't supposed to be the day when you try to kill yourself, right?" I rubbed my right arm sheepishly. Then I asked, "So…are you supposed to be ninjas or something? Because that was the only time I've ever seen moves like that outside of a ninja movie or my Tai Kwan Do class." The penguins just looked at each other.

"You can understand us?" the smallest one asked. 'Oh my God! It's a British penguin!' I mentally squealed at the cuteness level before showing them one of my ear buds.

"I modified the headset you left at my house. I copied the microchips, so I hope they still work." I pulled their headset out of my backpack, made sure the penguins were ready, and gently tossed them over to the tallest one.

"Did you make that?" I asked him. He smiled.

"Yes, although it's just a prototype to test my theory that it _is _possible to create an animal to human translator." I liked him so far. I liked his eyes and his smile. But I especially liked the fact that he seemed to be really intelligent. He invented an animal to human translator! I would probably be impressed if a human managed to do that. It wasn't every day I met a fellow scientist.

"I don't think I caught all of you names," I said. The second shortest of the four eyed me suspiciously.

"Why do you want to know?"

I replied, "I don't want to keep calling you by your height, if you please." He scowled at me and grudgingly pointed to the others from tallest to shortest.

"Kowalski, Rico, and Private." Then he pointed to himself. "Skipper. And you?" I scrunched up my nose when I replied.

"Niki. My full name is Nikita Korema, but if you ever call me Nikita, chances are you won't live to see another day." I didn't exactly like my name. I mean, 'Nikita'? I had a friend with a dog named Nikita!

Skipper stared at me with an incredulous look on his face. "Oh really? You think you could take us down?" He let out a short laugh. "You and what army sister?" I rolled my eyes.

"You should drop by my Tai Kwan Do class later. And I didn't' have much trouble handling myself last night, either. I don't need and army to win this war." I glared at him with a challenge in my eyes.

He said, "We _will _pay a visit to your class. Time and place?" I smiled brightly, hoping they weren't kidding.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three**_

An hour later, I walked into the studio. Master Shoei was meditating silently in his office, a couple sticks of incense burning. I could see him through the glass wall that separated his office from the rest of the studio. I took a seat, facing him, and waited for him to finish.

Shoei, actually, was only three years older than me; eighteen. Our old master—Master Jinnai—had retired about a year ago. Back then, Shoei had still been a junior in high school. He and I were Master Jinnai's most frequent students. We weren't really surprised when Master Jinnai told us he was retiring (I mean, seriously! He must have been at least a hundred years old!), but we were speechless when he asked Shoei, his only grandson, to take over for him.

Shoei had promised to find the time—outside of school—to keep up the studio. He had kept his promise so far.

After a few more minutes, Shoei opened his eyes. He and I stood up at the same time. Seeing this, Shoei got a big grin on his face and started copying ever move I made. I laughed slightly.

Even though Shoei was a senior and I was a freshman, he was my best friend. We met on my first day of class, when I was thirteen. Master Jinnai paired the two of us up for my first match, to see what I had to offer. To put it simply: I got my butt kicked. As a sophomore in high school, Shoei was a great fighter. We became friends two days later.

Shoei walked out and asked, "You're still hoping that if you keep at it, you'll beat me?" I crossed my arms at my chest and grinned.

"Maybe."

We got into our stances after bowing to each other and started our match. I was barely able to keep track of Shoei's movements, but I was still able to counter them. The match ended with us both panting heavily, a hand ready to strike our opponent's heart.

"You're getting… better!" Shoei gasped between breaths. I smiled.

'Finally!' I thought.

We caught our breath for a minute or two before we sat down to talk. No one else ever came to class on Fridays, so Shoei and I had all the time we wanted for talking and catching each other up on the week we had.

"So…" Shoei began. "What happened to you arm?" I didn't answer for a minute. I had guessed Shoei would notice, so I wasn't surprised in the least when he asked. I was, however, shocked when he grabbed my wrist and pulled up the bandages. Shoei's eyes widened as he stared at the deep gash in my arm.

"What the hell!" I pulled my arm away and re-arranged the bandages so that they covered the wound once more.

"What did you do!" Shoei demanded furiously. I looked away, unable to meet his disappointed eyes.

"It's—"

"Don't you even dare tell me it's nothing! Doesn't your life mean anything to you?" I still refused to look at him.

"Niki, look at me!" Shoei grabbed my chin and forced me to face him. "What's going on with you lately? … Is Aaron being an ass you to again?" I closed my eyes tiredly as he released my chin.

"I… went to the zoo yesterday. Aaron showed up, drunk. I refused to come home and…"

"And what?" Shoei asked darkly.

"He hit me. I'm just so tired of the stuff he puts me through. I didn't finish the job, though. In the end, I just couldn't do it." I looked up from my hands to see Shoei's expression. His eyes were dark and angry. I readied myself for a severe tongue-lashing.

"I'm gonna kill him the next time I see him." I stared at Shoei. He rarely ever made threats, but when he did, he usually kept to them. "I keep talking to him about it, but it seems that he still doesn't understand… I think it's time you get home, Niki…"

I frowned. I didn't want to go home yet. My mom and Steve would both still be at work, so it would only be me, my sisters, and Aaron at home. Shoei seemed to sense my reluctance.

"I'll walk with you, if you want. Just let me close up here and I'll catch up with you soon." I sighed in relief. I didn't want to face Aaron alone. Hopefully he wouldn't try anything if Shoei was with me.

I left the studio and started walking. Before I could get very far, I heard someone quietly call my name.

"Pssst! Niki!"

I looked around until I saw a flipper motioning at me from the bushes in front of the studio. I walked over and stuck my head into the leaves. The four penguins were huddled together under the bushes.

Private, the one who had called me over, whispered excitedly, "That was wicked brilliant!" I smiled. They _had_ been watching the match!

"Thanks! I'm still not as good as Shoei, though. But I'm catching up with him."

I froze as a voice behind me asked, "Niki? What are you doing?"

I tried to pull my head from the bush as gracefully as possible, but my long black hair snagged in the low branches.

"Owowowow!" I tried to untangle myself, but failed miserably.

"What am I doing, you ask? … Getting stuck in your hydrangeas…" I let my arms hang defeatedly at my sides as Shoei pulled gently at my hair, effectively freeing me from the bush's clutches.

"Thanks," I said gratefully. I ran my fingers through my hair like a comb and straightened my glasses on my nose.

"Who were you talking to out here?"

That stopped me in my tracks for a second. I could almost feel the penguins' eyes on the back of my neck.

"I was congratulating myself on how far I've come since I started my classes here," I quickly lied. It pained me to lie to my best friend, but it was a necessary evil.

"You still can't beat me in a fight, but it's true: you have come a long way from where you started." I sighed in relief at Shoei's statement.

We started our long walk to my house, talking about all kinds of things. I had the strangest feeling that we were being followed, but every time I looked back over my shoulder, there was no one there.

When we got to my house, Shoei said, "I'll come by tomorrow around three. I have something for you, if you decide to take it."

I opened my door and said, "I'll see you then. Later, Shoei!" I waved and went inside, closing the door behind me. I almost jumped out of my skin when I turned around and saw Aaron lying on the couch. I soon realized he was asleep and let out a slow, shaky breath.

I quietly walked into my room and closed the door. Then I reached under my bed for my notebook. I mentally cursed when I couldn't find it and buried myself deeper under, hoping I wouldn't get stuck.

"What are you doing down there?"

I twitched, bumping my head on the hard underside of my bed.

"Damn, that hurts," I hissed as I crawled out and sat up. Then I slowly opened my eyes.

"What are you guys doing in my room… again?" The penguins were sitting on my bed… with my notebook.

"Hey! That's what happened to my notepad! I must have dropped it by your habitat yesterday. Thanks for bringing it back." I took the pad of paper from Private.

He smiled and said, "It was no trouble at all."

I was having a hard time trying to contain the girly squeals that were struggling to escape my mouth. I just couldn't get over how cute Private was. He was small, fluffy, and _**British**_! Add that all together, and you have got the maximum cute!

"I have to admit, those were some pretty good moves… for a human female," Skipper said.

I decided this would be a good time to ask, "Do you think I could help you guys?" Skipper stared at me.

"What?"

I sat down at the other end of my bed, Indian style, and continued, "You have to leave the zoo sometimes, right? It would be a lot easier on you guys if you had someone to get you stuff… Someone who might blend in a lot better than four ninja penguins? I could get you a lot of the necessary materials for your inventions, Kowalski. My second cousin works in one of the labs in this area. He usually hooks me up with any of the supplies I need for my research."

Kowalski, by now, was drooling on my bed. I looked at Skipper. He didn't seem too thrilled by my idea.

"Look, sister… It sounds like a sweet set up, but we don't know anything about you. For all we know, you could be a spy, waiting until we let down our guard to strike!" I just stared at him in confused silence.

Kowalski and the others looked quite disappointed by Skipper's decision. Skipper seemed to notice this as he looked from one face to the next.

"I'm not asking to join your team or anything. I still have to go to school, so I couldn't do anything full-time. But I'm going to visit you guys a lot in the future, so I might as well be of some use." Skipper sat deep in thought for a few minutes.

"Fine. You can help us out once in a while. But if you ever decide to turn on us, we won't hesitate to defend ourselves. You got that?" I nodded enthusiastically.

All of a sudden, I heard something scratching at my door.

"What's that?" Skipper asked warily.

"Probably my dog, Kiba," I answered calmly. I got up to let her in, not noticing the way the guys tensed up at the mention of a dog.

Kiba jumped up on my bed as soon as I opened the door. She growled menacingly when she saw the penguins.

"Who are you, strange birds, and what do you think you are doing in my house?"

The penguins stared up at Kiba for a moment before Skipper said, "Dog! That is _not_ a dog."

Private trembled slightly as he said, "M-My! Y-You're quite b-big, aren't you?"

"Kiba!" I yelled. "Get off of my bed, and stop trying to intimidate them. They're friends."

Kiba looked from the penguins, to me, and back. Then she slunk off my bed and crawled until she was lying at my feet.

"She isn't a regular house dog, Skipper. She's a domesticated wolf. Kiba here's been living with humans since she was a pup." I reached down to pet Kiba between the ears, effectively melting her. Her long tail wagged furiously and she whined through an open-mouthed smile.

"A little to the left," she muttered. I complied with her request. She then pulled her head from beneath my hand.

"Whoa whoa whoa. You understood that?" I nodded, and Kiba's smile returned.

"This is great! You understand me. I have so much to talk to you about!"

Just then, Aaron's poor old cat, Crooks, stalked into the room.

"D-Did I hear you correctly? Y-You really… understand us?"

Poor old cat. I knew his fear-filled voice was courtesy of Aaron. The bastard was even mean to his animals!

"Kowalski made the translator. I just modified it." To show them, I pulled out one of the ear buds and held it up. After they had all seen it, I put it back in.

"Now no one can see them, so I won't get questioned and I can wear them all day." Crooks crawled under my bed and yawned.

"Well then. Since you can understand us now, can I sleep in here tonight?" His green eyes shone pleadingly at me from the shadows.

"Of course, Crooks. You can stay in here whenever you like. I would never expect you to sleep in Aaron's room. I'm even afraid to set foot in there." Aaron's room wasn't all that scary. I was just afraid I'd find the room's occupant in a foul mood every time I walked in.

The penguins hid under my bed as they heard footsteps approaching my room. My mom stuck her head into my room and smiled apologetically. It was then that I realized I hadn't talked to my mom since I went to the park the day before.

"Hey, Niki. How are you doing, sweety?" My mom walked the rest of the way into my room and sat on my bed.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to see you much yesterday. You went to the park before I got the chance to give you your present." My mom pulled out a long, narrow box with silver wrapping on it from behind her back. "Happy late birthday, hon."

I smiled and unwrapped the gift. My smile widened when I saw the large assortment of oil pastels within the box.

"Thanks mom," I said as I hugged her tightly. "I'll have to make you a picture with these.

My mom seemed to revert to a young child's personality as she asked, "Will you draw me a Wonder Gnome?" I looked at her, confused, as she bounced up and down on my bed.

"… Wonder Gnome?" My mom nodded excitedly.

"Yes! Wonder Gnome! He has the Mad Hatter's hat, and the Cheshire Cat's eyes and smile! Wonder Gnome!" At this description, I vaguely remembered a conversation with my mother about this odd little creature called Wonder Gnome.

"Yes. I'll make you a Wonder Gnome."

My mom smiled even wider and she stood up suddenly, almost yelling, "Yay for Wonder Gnome! He shall be a good gnome. Not like all those other, bad gnomes."

"Gnomes aren't alive, mom." At this, my mom turned to face me again.

"Then where do all my socks keep disappearing off to! Can you tell me that?" I lay down on my, finally, unoccupied bed.

"How am I to know where your socks end up? I don't take them."

My mom grinned smugly and said, "See? I know the gnomes took my socks. I'm sure of it. They sneak in from the garden at night and take them. Someday we'll be planting some flowers and end up digging up their stash. Until then, we'll have a giant basket of lonely socks who've lost their matches."

"Poor socks," I sighed. My mom smiled and kissed my forehead.

"I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight." My mom left, closing the door behind her. The penguins crawled out from under my bed.

"So that was your mom, huh?" Skipper asked. I nodded tiredly.

"Yeah. She's a little odd, but that's what makes her so great to be around." I looked at my clock. It was ten at night.

"What time are you guys going back to the zoo? I mean, I like having you guys here, but won't someone notice that you're gone?"

Skipper chuckled and said, "Don't worry about it." I shrugged.

"So… You guys can stay here, if you want. Choose a place. Sleep. I don't have school tomorrow, so my alarm shouldn't wake you up. At this, Skipper laughed.

"Your alarm couldn't wake us up! We're up at five o'clock a.m. on the dot!" I raised an amused eyebrow as I reached over to show them the time my alarm clock was set to: three o'clock a.m.

"I'm an early riser too," I taunted. I knew that he was probably thinking, 'Teens are supposed to want to sleep in as much as possible.' But not me. I only got, at most, six hours of sleep a night. I placed my alarm back on top of my night stand.

"Night," I whispered as I turned off my light.

"Goodnight," they all replied. But I barely heard them as I immediately fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

I opened my eyes slowly and looked at my clock. 2:30 a.m. I groaned quietly. Even when I didn't try to wake up so early, I couldn't stay asleep. I felt a small weight on my chest, which turned out to be Crooks, fast asleep. I gently rubbed between his ears and whispered, "Hey, Crooks. Wake up."

His emerald eyes snapped open. "Oh. It's you." Crooks relaxed against my chest for a moment before he stretched and moved to the foot of my bed to lay next to Private. "Can't sleep, huh?" I sighed and shook my head.

"When the guys wake up, tell them to stay here and come get me. I think we have some sardines in the cupboard." I petted the top of his head some more. "Would you like some sardines for breakfast this morning?" Crooks purred contentedly. "I'll take that as a yes."

I got up, carefully walking around the sleeping Rico on my floor. I cringed when I hit my foot on the desk in my room. Kowalski sat up on the desktop. From the papers scattered across the flat surface, I guessed that he had been looking through my things before he fell asleep. I ignored the obvious lack of regard for my privacy and whispered, "You should go back to sleep." Kowalski blinked sleepily at me before lying back down.

I left my room, silently closing the door. I flipped on the TV in our living room and turned on a recorded episode of Animal Cops: Houston.

I loved these kinds of shows; Animal Cops, NCIS, Bones, a few of the CSI series, Numb3rs. I loved a lot of things having to do with solving mysteries and putting criminals behind bars. In fact, one of my top three dream jobs was to be a cop. But not your average 'speeding tickets and DUI' kind of cop. I wanted to be a member of the ASPCA: the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Towards Animals. I watched Animal Cops from age five, and it sickened me how cruel people could be to their animals. My opinion was 'don't get an animal if you don't plan on taking care of it'. And 'if some day down the road it gets to the point where you can't provide for your animal, you should put it up for adoption so it can go to a better home'. You're not doing it any favors by letting it starve.

I had seen dogs without any hair because they had horrific cases of mange. Some where chained to a fence for so long that the chain wore into their neck and new skin grew over it. It was sick! Some people had left their pregnant dog alone outside, with no food or water, and never came back. The dog had her pups in the snow and only two of them survived... because the ASPCA found her and took her in, saving them.

In the episode I was watching that morning, there were eighteen dogs in a man's yard. All of them were vicious and emaciated. I was shocked for a second when I realized that I could hear the dogs arguing over what little food there was. Then I remembered the ear bud translators I was wearing. I experimentally took them out, hearing only growls and barking without their aid. I put them back in and grinned when I heard the dogs' argument resume.

'Sweet.'

I watched the dogs being signed over to the ASPCA officers and loaded into some large trucks. Many of them were so unaccustomed to human contact that they had started lashing out when the officers got too close. They were growling things like 'Get out of our territory' and 'Come one step closer, and I'll bite your leg off'.

The ASPCA eventually caught all of the dogs, but when they were tested to see if they could be adopted by a new family, only ten out of the eighteen dogs were deemed gentle enough for family life. The others would never be able to be adopted because they were too wild and aggressive. Almost half of the dogs would have to be put down just because their owner never bothered to play with them, or even pet them at all. He just left them alone in the yard to turn feral. Of the ten dogs that were friendly enough to get adopted, four of them had worms, and all of them were covered in fleas. Ten out of ten had scars, most likely from fighting over food. However, all of them eventually were adopted by loving families. I smiled at the fact that at least some of the dogs got to have a happy ending to their story.

When I looked at the clock on the wall, I saw that it was still only 3:30. 'An hour-and-a-half until the penguins usually wake up,' I thought to myself. I shrugged and got up to go play on our computer in the den.

I went on Facebook to check up on my friends and level up on the Naruto Shippuden App. Yes, I am an anime addict... thank you for asking. That's when I remembered that I never got to watch the new episode of Naruto, or read the new chapter on Thursday because of the little 'incident' with Aaron.

I hurriedly went to Mangafox to read the chapter. Chapter 529 was great! Then I switched over to Animefreak to watch episode 200. Once the episode was over I looked at the clock. It was four o'clock.

'Time for breakfast and more Facebook!' I thought. I grabbed a pumpkin muffin from the cupboard and poured myself a glass of milk before getting back on the computer. I logged onto Facebook and was surprised to find my friend Briana already online. Usually she wasn't up until around ten o'clock when we didn't have school. I started up a chat and asked, "What are you doing up so early?"

It took a while before she replied, "I can't sleep. I've got some family matters that I'm concerned about. Don't worry about it." We chatted for about half an hour before crooks came into the room, Private following close behind.

"You told me to come get you when they woke up. This one is the only one up, so far."

Private put his flippers on his hips and said, "I have a name, you know." "

Having trouble going back to sleep, Private?" I looked at the young penguin in concern. What was it with my friends and sleeping issues? Private looked at me and grinned sheepishly.

"Well, yes. I thought I might as well come see you if I can't go back to sleep. The others should be up soon."

I smiled and asked, "Would you like some sardines for breakfast?"

Private smiled back at me and replied, "Yes, please." I told Bri that I would be back on later and went into the kitchen. Up in the cupboard I found a six-pack of sardines. I loved sardines, and my mom bought them for me whenever she went shopping. I handed Private and Crooks a can of fish each and walked over to our living room again. Private, Crooks, and I sat down on the couch to wait for the other penguins to wake up.

It wasn't long before Kowalski, Skipper, and Rico poked their heads through my doorway. I gave them each a can. "Bon apetite!" Everyone sat on the couch, eating their sardine breakfast, until they all finished. Then we went back into my room.

"Good morning, guys," I said quietly. They all returned the greeting.

"That was probably one of the best nights of sleep I've had in a while," Skipper said as he stretched his back and neck. "Probably because Ringtail wasn't around." By 'Ringtail', I assumed that he was talking about the lemur in the nearby habitat.

"Why? What does the lemur do?

Private answered, "Julien can be a bit... noisy... at times. His music can usually be heard late into the night. I'm sure he just wants to have a good time, but it is a bit hard to sleep through."

Being an optimist made him just that much cuter.

"Let me get this straight... The lemurs play loud music late into the night, and no one ever catches them?"

"Pretty much," Skipper replied.

Private said, "When you put it that way, it does seem a bit odd that no one has ever noticed Julien's parties before." Private turned to Skipper with a curious expression on his face. "Why do you think that is, Skippah?"

Skipper was silent for a moment before murmuring, "I don't know. We'll have to do some recon on the subject at a later date. Right now, though, we should be heading back to the zoo for morning training." He turned to me and asked, "When should we next expect to see you?"

I thought about it for a sec before saying, "I'll come by this afternoon. I might bring Shoei with me. He doesn't get out much, and he's coming over today some time around three. Maybe I can convince him to pay a visit to the zoo. In the meantime, do you guys need me to get you anything?"

Private smiled happily at me and asked, "Do you think you might be able to find the time to get us a couple boxes of Peanut Butter Winkies?" I blinked.

"You guys like candy?" Private nodded quickly. "Sure, I can get you come candy. Do you need anything else?"

Kowalski gave me a long list of chemical compounds and said, "Thank you for the assistance. It gets quite tedious searching for all of these when you can't just read the labels." I tried to imagine searching for the right chemicals by sight alone. Then I imagined what could happen if you guessed incorrectly...

Ouch.

"You guys can't read?" All of them shook their heads simultaneously. I smiled slightly. "Then we have yet another thing I might be able to help you guys with."

"In the meantime, we should all be heading home before Alice makes her morning rounds. Thanks for bunking us for the night, soldier." Skipper jumped out the window and the others followed closely behind, leaving me alone in my room with a shopping list of chemicals and candy.

"... I think I'm going to like this."


End file.
